DC x AEW #2 Review

 

Writer: Steve Orlando

Penciler: Travis Mercer

Inkers: Travis Mercer & John Livesay

Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse

Letterer: Josh Reed

Cover Artists: Serg Acuña, Ricardo López Ortiz & Gian Galang

Editor: Michael McCalister

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $3.99/$4.99 Card Stock

Release Date: March 11, 2026

 

Speedster Wally West and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner have tangled with the champs of Wrestling Across The Multiverse. When WAM visits a planet, it's not usually a great thing for the people living there. Sadly, WAM's latest visit to Earth to battle the All Elite Wrestling champs doesn't change that record. Angered by losing to AEW’s Mercedes Moné, the dethroned WAM champ Deceilia Starshame breaks the Big Galactic Belt.

 

Shorn of the alloy that covered the Element X belt, the unstable X shards tear space-time as they scatter across the planet. Earth's superhero community teams up with the AEW champs to find them. But there's more villainy afoot than opportunists using the X shards to increase their power. How will Mercedes Moné and Lex Luthor use the Big Galactic Belt to reshape reality? And can anyone step into the ring to defeat them? Let's leap into DC x AEW #2 and see!

 

Story

The WAM wrestlers are used to traveling to planets facing disaster. After their fallen champ unleashes chaos, the intergalactic wrestlers flee back to The Hub, leaving the Justice League Elite to pick up the pieces. The superheroes pair off with AEW wrestlers in a global scavenger hunt. After Aquaman and Mercedes Moné found the final piece, they traveled to Kahndaq to reforge the Big Galactic Belt. Like the DC K.O. champion, who commanded the Heart of Apokolips to do their bidding, Mercedes Moné and Lex Luthor aim to use the belt to reshape the world as they see fit.

 

In DC x AEW #2, the Justice League heroes and their AEW teammates battle DC villains. On the Justice League Watchtower, Martian Manhunter telepathically coordinates with the scattered teams. Despite knowing that Lex and Mercedes could reshape their reality or strike them from existence, how these heroes triumph is as important as defeating their foes.

 

Steve Orlando pairs the dauntless duos according to their personalities. Where and whom they fight may resonate with their past, or that of their parents. These odd couples may not like or trust each other. Yet the stakes they fight for are greater than the differences separating them.

 

Mercedes Moné won the Big Galactic Belt using dubious tactics. Lex Luthor is a better tactician than a fighter. As champions of their respective worlds, neither likes sharing power. Yet, after using their ingenuity to wield absolute power, both “CEOs” must fight to retain the power to hold the world to ransom in DC x AEW #2.

 

Art

Lex Luthor’s high-tech armor glows amid the inscribed stone pillars as Mercedes Moné’s belt crackles with energy. Aquaman and Mercedes regard each other in an inset close-up, separated by the object that came between them. Mr. Terrific and J’onn utilize holographic monitors on the Watchtower, while the Big Galactic Belt's crackling energy prompts lightning to shake the League of Assassins' mountain stronghold. Modern towers rise in the distance as Jon Moxley and Guy Gardner fight in a park, while Harley Quinn plays Smash or Pass amid the celestial interior design of the Royal Flush Gang's command center.

 

Andrew Dalhouse lavishes a loaded palette on Travis Mercer and John Livesay's rapid-fire action scenes in DC x AEW #2. While the purple in Lex's green suit links him with Mercedes, green power flows across the globe. John Stewart and Guy Gardner utilize their Green Lantern powers to defeat their foes. Echidna, Johnny Sorrows’ Shaggoth Dogs, and the Joker's hair and shirt link the villains with Lex Luthor. Deimos, Zatanna, and Toni Storm wield pink magic, while Darby Allin's pink jacket and Lady Nightingale's pink and purple outfit suggest the need to choose our mentors wisely.

 

Josh Reed uses white block letters to introduce locales, as letters in colored boxes convey off-camera dialogue. Uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons grow bold for intonation and swell for raised voices, while extreme emotion makes balloons spiky. Amid hand-to-hand combat, weapons fighting, and gunshots, pinging fills the air, giving one DC K.O. combatant another chance to preserve reality in DC x AEW #2. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.

 

Final Thoughts

As villains look for easy victories, heroes know that the best futures are the ones we fight for every day. They're impatient to prevent Lex Luthor and Mercedes Moné from reshaping reality. Yet the AEW wrestlers and their Justice League Elite teammates remain in each troubled region until safeguarding the locals from the villains who threaten them in DC x AEW #2.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To look inside see my preview of DC x AEW #2.